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Mesrine: Public Enemy #1

Synopsis

The story of Jacques Mesrine, France's public enemy No. 1 during the 1970s. After nearly two decades of legendary criminal feats -- from multiple bank robberies and to prison breaks -- Mesrine was gunned down by the French police in Paris.

Incredible sequel that still has my head spinning and heart pounding! The story was crazier than a soup sandwich! How a sociopathic cold blooded killer could outwit the police for decades is just beyond me! While he was intelligent, his ego and arrogance would ultimately lead to his undoing!

Vincent Cassel is no longer a young and promising actor, he has become the quintessential actor!

In my review of part one of this double feature, I mentioned a downside to the film was that things seemed very embellished and hard to believe. Well…I must say, it was only after finishing this second and final film that I went onto my good friend Wikipedia to read up on the true story of Jacques Mesrine…and shockingly enough, somehow/someway…a lot of this crazy shit actually happened. I guess I should never assume.

Anyways…onto the film itself. This second part is pretty much comparable to the first. Lots of violence, lots of action, very well executed…all around very entertaining, although maybe a little bit more methodical than the first film. I honestly have nothing valuable to add when comparing…

That poster tells you everything you need to know about Jean-Francois Richet's thrillingly violent part II of his film about Jacques Mesrine. As Public Enemy #1, our bank robbing psychopath/sociopath (take your pick) is only going to end up one way....dead. As biopics go this has been fairly entertaining. We get a distinctive view of what Jacques Mesrine was really like, but it does seem like we've only just scratched the surface. A complex man with a psyche as complicated as a bag of cats, he never seems to have any peace between robbing casinos, robbing banks, and escaping from jail. One of the things that baffled me here is how bad his disguises were. He's infamous, a wanted man,…

Cassel's Mesrine embodies the gangster archetype of irresistible charm coupled with unimaginable violence, a ferocious intellect bent only toward crime, the kind of character that sinks its teeth into the back of your brain. And to put together a film where you’ve shown how it ends twice already, and yet still make that ending unbelievably tense and powerful: that is spectacular filmmaking.

As I expected, no real change from my thoughts on the first part. The second part, to me, is somewhat better constructed, more energetic, and more evenly paced, but basically wastes Mathieu Amalric, Olivier Gourmet (who looks unrecognizable), and Ludivine Sagnier in parts that never really develop as they should. This is entirely Cassel's show, and he's fully up to the task. His performance is the main thing making this film any better than your average true crime thriller.

The second part does somewhat address my earlier concerns about the filmmakers' take on Mesrine, invoking more elements of his belief in his own cult of personality and even a degree of fate. It's not Public Enemies, though, and lack's that…

Another excellent French crime drama in which Vincent Cassel shines. Now exploring what Jacques Mesrine got up to once back in France, it is shocking to think he actually got away with this for so long.

Public Enemy #1, the second film in Jean-François Richet’s two-part biopic of the elusive French gangster Jacques Mesrine, adopts a similar pace to its predecessor right from the start. Much of Killer Instinct explored Mesrine’s ability to evade capture by the authorities and in Public Enemy #1 an early, dramatic courtroom escape shows that not much has changed in the intervening years between the two films.

Just as in the first film, Public Enemy #1 begins with a flashback, yet there is a key difference between the two parts in that here we see Jacques Mesrine’s death (or his dead body, at least) right at the beginning of the film. It is a strange choice of edit as, for the…

As I expected, no real change from my thoughts on the first part. The second part, to me, is somewhat better constructed, more energetic, and more evenly paced, but basically wastes Mathieu Amalric, Olivier Gourmet (who looks unrecognizable), and Ludivine Sagnier in parts that never really develop as they should. This is entirely Cassel's show, and he's fully up to the task. His performance is the main thing making this film any better than your average true crime thriller.

The second part does somewhat address my earlier concerns about the filmmakers' take on Mesrine, invoking more elements of his belief in his own cult of personality and even a degree of fate. It's not Public Enemies, though, and lack's that…

Not really as interesting as one might hope (though nor was number 1), this is really sort of an aimless rap sheet of the famous French criminal. Vincent Cassel is front and centre, but, in all honesty, the character just isn't that compelling. It works better as a stand-alone feature than part 1, but I probably enjoyed that one better.